Saving the Salmon

Greater Seattle may be best known around the world for Microsoft, Starbucks and rock bands like Nirvana, but residents know it for something less flashy: its rich stock of wild salmon. Last week the Federal Government, noting that that stock is running dangerously low, placed seven types of salmon and two types of trout on its list of threatened or endangered species. Never before has the regulatory machinery of the Endangered Species Act been turned on so large or heavily populated an area. Saving the fish from extinction will require sacrifices from Seattle, Portland, Ore., and the surrounding counties and could...